Captain Sam's:
Today was a very big day for us at Captain Sam’s. The temperature and humidity were quite nice well into the later half of our morning, alongside having some overcast clouds that allow us to keep some of our exposed nets active. On our first net run this morning Brendan and I come up on a Prothonotary Warbler which is always exciting to see, we continue along the trail and about 3/4 of the way back to the table we walk up on a Chuck-wills-widow in net 23! This was huge for me, it’s the bird I wanted to band most this year and here it is on day 4! I’ve grown quite fond of the species over the last three years and are quite interested in studying them further. I was even fortunate enough to work for a former KIBS employee, now graduate student, studying Eastern Whip-poor-wills this summer in central Illinois. That was an amazing experience that gave me the chance to grow my love for nightjars as well as learn them on a much deeper level.
Once back at the table it was time to band the bird. I had a suspicion that the individual was a hatching year bird based on the brief look I got at the tail when Brendan extracted it, taking a look at it further the primary coverts confirmed my thoughts! Hatch year birds of both Chuck-wills-widows and Eastern Whip-poor-wills both show buffy tips on their primary coverts (shown below). Their feathers are nothing short of fantastic. Their cryptic coloration are what allows them to have the crepuscular lifestyle they have. Foraging at dusk and dawn and finding a spot either in a tree or on the ground for roosting in between those foraging times. You really can get lost trying to enjoy the intricacies of each individual feather as well as how they work together with the others.
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| The middle toe of Chuck-wills-widows and other nightjars alike have these specialized structures that are currently thought to be used as combs for feathers and possibly their rictal bristles. |
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| Our fabulous catch of the day. They're so cryptic looking it can be hard to discern the buffy tipping to the primary coverts. This bird does show that characteristic as well as having tail feathers with patterning that lines up with hatching year birds. |
As much as I’d love to only talk about the Chuck-wills-widow we had lots of other great birds that deserve some recognition. We added a total of 6 new species for the season; Chuck-wills-widow, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Yellow Warbler, Ovenbird, Red-eyed Vireo, and Mourning Dove. All kept coming at different times keeping today very interesting for us. We even continued our trend for catching Eastern Kingbirds, dwarfing the number we caught last year (and already by the fourth day)!
It also wouldn’t be a blog post by me if there wasn’t a haiku…
Feathers tipped with buff
rictal bristles and dark eyes
and toes with a comb
- Nate
| Species | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Mourning Dove | - | 1 | - | - |
Yellow-billed Cuckoo | 1 | - | - | - |
Chuck-wills-widow | 1 | - | - | - |
Downy Woodpecker | 2 | 2 | - | - |
Great Crested Flycatcher | 1 | - | - | - |
Eastern Kingbird | 3 | - | - | - |
White-eyed Vireo | - | 1 | - | - |
Red-eyed Vireo | 2 | - | - | - |
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | 1 | 1 | - | - |
Northern Mockingbird | 1 | 1 | - | - |
Ovenbird | 1 | - | - | - |
Northern Waterthrush | 5 | - | - | - |
Prothonotary Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
American Redstart | 2 | - | - | - |
Yellow Warbler | 1 | - | - | - |
Prairie Warbler | 6 | - | - | - |
Northern Cardinal | 3 | 3 | - | - |
| Painted Bunting | 3 | 7 | - | - |
| Today's Banding Stats | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 34 | - | 34 |
| # of Recaptures | 16 | - | 16 |
| # of Species | 18 | - | 18 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 153 | - | 153 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 32.7 | - | 32.7 |
| # of Nets | 30 | 21 | - |
| 2022 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 115 | - | 115 |
| # of Recaptures | 44 | - | 44 |
| # of Species | 22 | - | 22 |
| Effort (net-hours) | 552 | - | 552 |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 28.8 | - | 28.8 |
| # of Days | 4 | - | 4 |
Banding Staff
Brendan Wang (CS)
